Cruiseshipcrew From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 189 posts, RR: 1 Posted (3 years 9 months 2 days ago) and read 18001 times:
Hey everyone,
Well its that time of the year again and I'm back in Hawaii getting ready to do another contract on my next ship. I decided to fly into Honolulu a few days early so I can relax before I get back to work. I also decided to upgrade my flights to BusinessFirst. Now before I booked this I was close to going with Delta so I could get the chance to fly on the upper deck of the 747 before they pull it from the ATL-HNL market but the dates I needed had nothing avail on top so I picked Continental for the better service.
Wednesday night I did my goodbyes to friends and family and packed and tried to go to bed early because I had to wake up around 3:15 am to head over to the airport. If you know the greater Cleveland area then you will realize how happy I was when I made it from the Shaker Heights area to the airport in 20 minutes. I arrived at the airport and was through security at 5am. I headed over to the Presidents Club and was a bit bummed to see it didn't open till 5:15 am but my flight boarded at 5:25 am so I just did a very quick stop to pick up some OJ. The lounge was totally empty so I headed off to my gate for boarding.
Continental AIrlines Flight 1045
Cleveland-Houston
Boeing 737-900ER ship #414 with Direct TV.
First Class
Right on the dot at 5:15 they announced boarding and soon I was sitting in my sit drinking my pre-flight Ice Tea. This was my first time trying out Direct TV on Continental Airlines and I was pleased with it. With a 6:00 am departure pretty much everything was infomercials but the news so I stuck with good old CNN.
This guy sitting in front of me gives putting your feet on the bulkhead a new definition!
Just a picture after take off of the sun starting to rise
Shortly after take off the flight attendant came around and took everyone's breakfast orders. Todays options were a bowl of cereal with banana, bowl of yogurt or the hot choice. The hot option was a Swiss cheese egg thing, potatoes, ham, sausage, Strawberry yogurt and a fruit bowl. On top of that Continental passes out different bread items and I picked the very hot cinnamon roll. Their breakfast is always filling. (side note: I'm typing this part from my next leg of the flight and you can now smell the fresh cookies baking and it smells soooo good!!)
Diva of the day alert:
The woman next to me on this flight was such a diva. She ordered a glass of skim milk. When it arrived she said it was a tad too warm and wanted it chilled. No problem... Well when they brought it back it was now too cold. Poor Flight Attendant...
After breakfast I decided to watch some more CNN and at some point I fell asleep and woke up as we were getting ready to land in Houston.
The connecting flight was very easy. I headed towards the E terminal Presidents club and decided to go take a shower because I was feeling a bit hot from the flight before. This Presidents club is very nice with great views.
I took a quick snack and checked my facebook etc. By the time I did that boarding was going to start in 10 minutes so I headed over to gate E4.
Right at 8:45 am they announced all BusinessFirst customers can now board the plane. I really like being the first one to board on this flight so as soon as I saw the regular group of older people about to pass me, assuming I was lost and stating in the wrong line, I stepped it into high gear and headed down the jetway. The SECOND I turned down the first class lane towards the first door I realized how great the flight would be. In my last trip report here:
I talked about how great the service was. Well I was so pleased to see the same two ladies standing in the door greeting people. Right from the start we picked up on our industry and gossip about United Airlines. I was pleased to be back on their flight.
I had my traditional pre-flight Mimosa (they didn't card me this time!) and looked over the menu for the flight.
After take off they handed out table cloths for everyone and gave out nuts and another Mimosa. I don't know why they took away the hot nut cups instead of just the bag it sure looked nicer.
The first meal on the flight is:
Appetizer: Smoked salmon with cream cheese and caviar, accompanied by creamed horseradish.
This wasn't bad. Pretty standard for a flight appetizer.
Salad and warm bread: Fresh mesclun salad mix and romaine lettuce with baby pear, Roma tomato and pecans. Your choice of Champagne vinaigrette or blue cheese dressing. ( I picked the Vinaigrette)
Fresh selections of breads (I love Continental's garlic bread)
The salad was good but by the time I got to the bottom it was just a pool of dressing but still tasty. The pear was very refreshing.
Main Courses: Grilled Steak, Herbed Breast of Chicken or a Pasta Bowl. I picked the Steak. "Grilled Sterling Silver New York sirloin steak with pepper rub, red wine and vegetable sauce, roasted portobella mushrooms, potatoes au gratin and grilled green and white asparagus."
The Steak was really good but I had to cut the fat around the edge. It was cooked well and was very juicy. It was about 1 inch think. The potatoes were ok but kinda tasted cheap compared to the steak. The veggies were good. Overall it was a great meal and I was stuffed. They kept the wine filled and the water also.
For dessert I had the Hot Fudge Sundae with hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry. Very good!!
When the first meal service was over we were over Arizona.
At the west coast
Little laptop entertainment
Halfway into the flight they cooked fresh cookies and offered water or milk with them.
About 1 hour 30 minutes before landing one of the flight attendants came around and said "I have some delish burgers cooking, would anyone like them?" I accepted and it wasn't bad. The topping were a bit weak but it tasted good.
Truffles before landing.
Almost there!
Once landing I collected my bags and headed over to the Aqua Palms hotel. This hotel is one of the best values in Waikiki so I was pleased with the room. Its right next to the Hilton Hawaiian Village and is about $98 a night.
I'm here till Sunday then I fly on Hawaiian Air to Maui and board my ship where I will be working till Jan 10th, 2010. A few pics of my ship..
Thanks for reading my trip report. Thanks for all your comments also!
Crosswinds21 From Netherlands, joined Jun 2009, 684 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (3 years 9 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 17727 times:
Nice report. The food looks quite good. I noticed from your picture of the route map that the plane flew just north enough from IAH to avoid overflying Mexico. Is this pretty standard on this route or was it just a one time thing? It seems odd because according to great circle mapper, that route is out of the way. I wonder if it's done to avoid paying additional overflight fees to Mexico. But if that's the case, then is it really worth it given how much extra fuel is spent?
UAL757 From United States of America, joined Sep 2006, 803 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (3 years 9 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 17701 times:
Aren't you glad I told you to pick CO? You were quick with putting this up.
Great report (and your ship looks awesome) - and I will admit to putting my feet on the bulkhead (but only to feel the AS carpets ) but that guy reaalllly had his feet up there.
Cruiseshipcrew From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 189 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (3 years 9 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 17655 times:
Quoting Crosswinds21 (Reply 3): Nice report. The food looks quite good. I noticed from your picture of the route map that the plane flew just north enough from IAH to avoid overflying Mexico. Is this pretty standard on this route or was it just a one time thing? It seems odd because according to great circle mapper, that route is out of the way. I wonder if it's done to avoid paying additional overflight fees to Mexico. But if that's the case, then is it really worth it given how much extra fuel is spent?
Yes it is to avoid extra fees. Only time time did we go over Mexico and that was because of head winds or something.
Quoting UAL757 (Reply 4): Aren't you glad I told you to pick CO? You were quick with putting this up.
haha ye man thanks for watching my back I'm SOOOO glad I didn't go with the other option.
And yeah I've put my feet there before but this guy did it to the max.
LH4116 From Sweden, joined Aug 2007, 1672 posts, RR: 15 Reply 7, posted (3 years 9 months 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 17050 times:
Great report!
You seemed to cover two rather rare a/c types on your legs!
The food on CO looked nice, but the steaks... Well it's not the first time I've read about CO's fatty steaks (I believe this was the 4th time!) They should really do something about it. Maybe you should send a complaint, perhaps?
Quoting Cruiseshipcrew (Thread starter): This guy sitting in front of me gives putting your feet on the bulkhead a new definition!
That pic was giving me some bad vibes, urrggh... Did the crew ask him to put his legs down?
Thanks for sharing!
//Jonas
I won't stop complaining until SAS reintroduces free service in Economy Class!
DELTA7478 From United States of America, joined Dec 2008, 173 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (3 years 9 months 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 15938 times:
Cruiseshipcrew From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 189 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (3 years 9 months 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 15742 times:
Quoting COEWR2587 (Reply 1): Nice report. How were u on youtube on the plane...i don't recall them putting wi-fi in their planes?
In the airline club I open many windows so they fully download them I watch them on the plane.
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 8258 posts, RR: 56 Reply 15, posted (3 years 9 months 9 hours ago) and read 14484 times:
Hi James,
Great TR as usual, really enjoyed, thanks
Quoting Cruiseshipcrew (Thread starter): This guy sitting in front of me gives putting your feet on the bulkhead a new definition!
- This is really quite revolting, if I was a FA I'd have asked him to get his feet off of my wall!
Quoting Cruiseshipcrew (Thread starter): The hot option was a Swiss cheese egg thing, potatoes, ham, sausage, Strawberry yogurt and a fruit bowl
- Looks pretrt decent.
Quoting Cruiseshipcrew (Thread starter): About 1 hour 30 minutes before landing one of the flight attendants came around and said "I have some delish burgers cooking, would anyone like them?" I accepted and it wasn't bad. The topping were a bit weak but it tasted good.
- Hmm, the weakest part of all the meals you have had IMO.
KLASM83 From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 584 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (3 years 8 months 4 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 13871 times:
Certainly was as delightful trip report. I guess it was good you went with CO. . Perhaps one day you (as will the rest of us) get into the upper deck of a 747.
Transpac787 From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 3138 posts, RR: 14 Reply 17, posted (3 years 8 months 3 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 12859 times:
Wow, I've always wanted to have a burger on a plane!! Having pizza on a plane was about the second-coming for me, so now I'll have to get on CO some time!!
Also, love the 767-400!! Did you visit the cockpit at all??
DL_mech From United States of America, joined Feb 2000, 1761 posts, RR: 10 Reply 18, posted (3 years 8 months 3 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 12540 times:
Quoting Cruiseshipcrew (Thread starter): Once landing I collected my bags and headed over to the Aqua Palms hotel. This hotel is one of the best values in Waikiki so I was pleased with the room. Its right next to the Hilton Hawaiian Village and is about $98 a night.
Did they fix the elevators yet? When I was there last year, I think one out of the three were working.
It's not going to the Moon.....It's just going to California
Cruiseshipcrew From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 189 posts, RR: 1 Reply 19, posted (3 years 8 months 2 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 11995 times:
Quoting DL_mech (Reply 18): Did they fix the elevators yet? When I was there last year, I think one out of the three were working.
Hahaha yes they did! I was there also when only one was working and it was bad. The new ones are nice though.
COEWR2587 From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 603 posts, RR: 2 Reply 20, posted (3 years 7 months 2 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago) and read 10067 times:
Do you remember if the monitors in F with DirectTV are movilable. Can you tilt them when the seat reclines. I have seats in F coming up on the 739ER and was wondering if I should get row 1 so the monitor view isn't bad.
The777Man From United States of America, joined Jul 1999, 6079 posts, RR: 56 Reply 21, posted (3 years 7 months 2 weeks 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 9772 times:
The food looks amazing on CO!
Nice report!
The777Man
Need a Boeing 777 Firing Order....Further to fly....GA, T5, CI and LX 777s
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6183 posts, RR: 79 Reply 22, posted (3 years 7 months 2 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 9676 times:
Nice report with great pictures!
Quoting Cruiseshipcrew (Thread starter): Todays options were a bowl of cereal with banana, bowl of yogurt or the hot choice. The hot option was a Swiss cheese egg thing, potatoes, ham, sausage, Strawberry yogurt and a fruit bowl. On top of that Continental passes out different bread items and I picked the very hot cinnamon roll. Their breakfast is always filling.
All the food looks excellent. And I like CO's porcelain.
Quoting Cruiseshipcrew (Thread starter): The woman next to me on this flight was such a diva. She ordered a glass of skim milk. When it arrived she said it was a tad too warm and wanted it chilled. No problem... Well when they brought it back it was now too cold. Poor Flight Attendant...
Cruiseshipcrew From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 189 posts, RR: 1 Reply 23, posted (3 years 7 months 2 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 9251 times:
Quoting COEWR2587 (Reply 20): Do you remember if the monitors in F with DirectTV are movilable. Can you tilt them when the seat reclines. I have seats in F coming up on the 739ER and was wondering if I should get row 1 so the monitor view isn't bad.
Yeah you were able to move them up or down so you could get the best possible view from however far back your seat was.
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 189 posts, 
From Netherlands, joined Jun 2009, 684 posts, 
) but that guy reaalllly had his feet up there.
From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2004, 1558 posts, 
From Sweden, joined Aug 2007, 1672 posts, 
From Ireland, joined Nov 2006, 24875 posts, 
From Australia, joined Jun 2009, 196 posts, 
. Perhaps one day you (as will the rest of us) get into the upper deck of a 747.
From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6183 posts, 
Sponsor Message: 
Printer friendly format
